Just got back to Palestine after a trip to Berlin for a workshop exchanging experiences on issues of popular resistance in different countries (Egypt, Nepal, Palestine etc.) and evolution of forms of resistance. I regretted being outside the country when the action happened called Gate of the Sun (the village was attacked again the day before I came back and emptied). We did discuss this action in our workshop and offered ideas on better messaging, better media work, and better strategies. We agreed that we must follow it up with additional actions including ending the so called security cooperation with Israel (where Palestinians act as subcontractors for the occupation), growing the BDS movement (http://bdsmovement.net), and leading to total civil disobedience and removal of the barriers to freedom (physical and metaphysical). Freedom is not given by occupiers, it is taken with hard work and sacrifices.
Request: If any individual has good fundraising experience and can help some worthy Palestinian nongovernmental organizations raise funds, please contact me. One of the NGOs is also willing to host the volunteer here (lodging and some of the expenses but not airline tickets). BTW, the recent floods in the north of the West Bank left many people devastated.
You can read in the following about various important developments and actions relating to human rights. I draw your attention especially to two Israeli documentaries gaining notoriety despite the frustration of the Israeli government, a book of post-Zionist Jewish recollections, Israeli election choice of extremists, two action calls and more.
A new letter from Palestine Freedom Riders (I am proud to be one of those 6) to help with the boycott campaign
http://www.stl-psc.org/?p=389
Two Israeli documentaries up for Oscars this year but the apartheid state apparatus is NOT happy http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/israel_confronts_its_image_problem/
Brilliant book: ‘Beyond Tribal Loyalties’ — new volume spotlights awakenings of 25 Jewish activists
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/01/loyalties-spotlights-awakenings.html
Israel’s Palestinians are not a minority: Like Canada’s First Peoples, the Palestinians’ nationhood cannot be measured in numbers. By Amira Haas http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/israel-s-palestinians-are-not-a-minority.premium-1.494166
Israeli elections: A choice between extremists
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/02/06/694017/-Israeli-elections-a-choice-between-extremists
ACTION CALLS
-Time For Justice – A call from Palestine to EU citizens: Ask your governments and EMPs to suspend EU-Israel Association Agreement and stand up for human rights in 2013! http://palsolidarity.org/timeforjustice/
-From Palestinian Committee, Stuttgart to German Nationals: Act to end ethnic cleansing and destruction in the Negev by the racist “Jewish National Fund”
http://palaestinakomitee-stuttgart.de/ (available material in three languages)
I get these kinds of off-the-wall ads as posted above on my anti-Zionist blog too. One wonders who sends them..
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wanted to respond to the request for fund raisers with this idea: Years ago I organized a California Native American tribal lottery system that never went anywhere because the tribal council that I worked on the project with got more or less voted out of office by the tribe's casino gang who didn't want lottery competition. But I do have knowledge or at least did have it on how to set up a lottery system, an international one as our tribal one included an international version, Lifeline Lottery, that used cell-phone system for ticket sales. Lotteries if done right can raise immense amounts of money. I know there's an onus against gambling by Muslims but was wondering if Christian Palestinians couldn't start a Palestinian Lottery to fund all these good Palestinian groups. And continue on to fund Palestinian nation building as lotteries have historically done.